GERMANO & CAHILL, P.C. ofc na, 07 MLE LEN Guy W. Germano Michael Cah Meghan Peay 6. wim Germano, January 29, 2019 Syed H. Rahman, PE, ‘Regional Materials Management Engineer ‘New York State Department of Environmental Conservation SUNY @ Stony Brook 50 Circle Road Stony Brook, NY 11790-3409 Re: Drop-off Collection Programs for Glass inthe Towns of Smithtown and Brookhaven Dear Syed: have been asked to respond on behalf of the Towns of Smithtown and Brookhaven to your email to the Towns dated December 21,2018, concerning the Towns’ establishment of drop- off collection of recyclable glass at designated location, and the removal of glass from established weekly collections of other recyclable materials, and the applicable provisions of General Municipal Law §120-na (pereinafter GML. 120-aa). Trecognize that you and other members ofthe Department have been in communication with Mike Engelmann of Smithtown and Chris Andrade of Brookhaven on this subject for several weeks. This letter is intended to supplement those communications in an effort to express the Towns” positions and identify common ground. Factual Background [As you know, the Towns of Smithtown and Brookhaven had relied upon single steam collection of recyclables, including glass, for aver four (4) years in reliance upon the processing. capabilites of Hudson Baylor Brookhaven LLC, which operated a single stream materials recovery facility (MRF) atthe Brookhaven Landfill complex. Prior o the institution of single stream collection, both Towns had collected recyclables in a dual stream format since the early 1990s. In the fall of 2018, Hudson Baylor Brookhaven LLC ceased operation, in large part due to actions of the Chinese government to effectively close its markets to North American recyclables ‘The action ofthe Chinese government had serious and widespread impacts on recyclables ‘markets, as China had previously accepted over one third ofthe recyclables generated inthe United States. Initially, after the closure of the Hudson Baylor facility, Smithtown and Brookhaven had ro markets for any material leading to stockpiling of collected recyclables and disposal of some ‘materials at significant costs. The physical plant atthe Brookhaven MRF remains unavailable to ‘Attomeysat Law 4250 Veterans Memeril Highway Suite 275 # Holbrook, NY 3743 “F63 g8.6778 «Fe (63) 5 asg0 « ww geanocshil cm‘Syed H. Rahman, PE, Regional Materials Management Engineer Page 2 of 5 January 29, 2019 Brookhaven due to legal issues. Many conversations were held with other municipalities in similar situations and these conversations frequently focused on the effects of glass in the recyclables stream, and its impact on commodity pricing. The Towns noted that many municipalities in New York and elsewhere had elected to drop glass from their recyclable programs altogether. (See Exhibit 1). However, neither Town wished to abendon recyclables collection nd both set out to secure purchase and disposal options through public bids. Brookhaven solicited bids for single stream ‘materials, and Smithtovn solicited bids for recyclables commodity sales potentially applicable to both Towns” recyclables under a variety of scenarios, including single and dual stream collection, commingled container pricing with and without glass, and individual sorted commodities if ‘Smithtown were to restart operations ofits own MRF. (See Exhibit 2 - Smithtown Bid Tabulation Sheet). After bids were received, the Towns estimated the net costs of various options for continuance of recyclables collection in single or dual stream formats, both with and without glass in the curbside collection mix. OF the options available, the continuance of curbside recyclables collection in a dual stream format without glass, was the best option in terms of net cost. (See Exhibit 3 - TOS Recyclables Processing Options). his was the option selected forthe eurbside programs, but glass remains a designated recyclable commodity and both Towns have established drop-off collction locations for glass, ‘with reuse in crushed form as liner aggregates atthe Brookhaven landfill at a cost of S1/ton, Application of GML 120-aa In the email of December 21,2018 and in other contexts and presentations, the Department has taken the position that GML. 120-aa requires equivalent collection practices for MSW and recyclables and for all recyclables designated as such by the community. The email states as follows: Glass is a component ofthe reeyclable waste stream as identified in the New York State General Municipal Law (GML) §120-aa, This law requires equivalent collection for reeyclables and waste, so requiring drop-off locations for glass while providing eurbside collection for disposed waste and other recyclables does not meet statutory requiements, ‘The Department has always interpreted and promoted that all components of the recyclables waste stream as identified in the GML §120-aa must be equally convenient to the residents to recycle, and that collection of recyclables be, at a minimum, equivalent to the waste stream collection program offered to resident, ‘The text of GML 120-a is as follows: (underscored portions ofthe text will be discussed), § 120-80. Source separation and segregation of recyclable or reusable materialsSyed H. Rahman, PLE. Regional Materials Management Engineer Page 3 of 5 January 28, 2019 1. The legislature hereby finds that it isin the public intrest inorder to further the purposes of the state policy on solid waste management articulated in section 27-0106 of the environmental conservation la, fora municipality to adopt a local law or ordinance 19 require the source separation and segregation of recyclable or reusable material from solid waste, 2. a, Pursuant to the authority of this section, no later than September first, nineteen ‘hundred ninety-two, a municipality shall adopt such a local law or ordinance to require that solid waste which has been left for collection or which is delivered by the generator of such ‘waste to a solid waste management facility, shall be separated into recyclable, reusable oF ‘other components for which economic markets for altemate uses exist. For purposes of this section, the term “economic markets” refers to instances in which the full avoided costs of proper collection, transportation and disposal of source separated materials are equal to orgreater than the cost of collection, transportation and sale of sai material less the amount received from the sale of said material, b. For purposes of this section, “components” shall include paper, glass, metals, Plastics, garden and yand waste, and may include other elements of solid waste ©. Prior to oxeresing the authority ofthis section to enact auc a local law or ordinance, ‘the municipality shal hold a public hearing relating to its proposed provisions and shall {ve due consideration to existing source separation, reeveling and other resoureerecovs activites in_the area, to the adequacy of markets for separated materials, nd 1 any jonal effortand expense 0 bei i ing ed separation quirements. The authority provided in this section shall be in addition to and without imitation upon the authority vested in municipalities under any othe statute. 4. _In fulfillment ofthe provisions of this section a municipality may use public lands or buildings or private ands or buildings, open to the public, upon written consent of the ‘over, as @ recycling center or depot for the storage of recyclable materials. The office of ‘general services and any other agency, authority or commission holding ttle to lands or buildings in the name ofthe people of the state shal fully cooperate with any person zcting under the authority of tis section to establish a recycling program, provided that such use is not inconsistent with the prineiple purpose of such lands or buildings, subject to local zoning restrictions. We see nothing inthe text of GML 120-aa that requires equivalent collection practices for MSW and recyclables. We must also point out that in every Long Island municipality that provides ‘waste collection services to the public, MSW is collected two (2) times per week, with 108 collections per year. Recyclabes are collected once per week (52 collections) and yard wastes ae collected once per week in 28-32 wecks per year. Houschold hazardous wastes and e-wastes are collected and recycled through drop-off programs across Long Island and throughout the State